Thursday, February 23, 2012

Our love story: The final chapter

First, we went ring shopping. I couldn't find anything I loved so I combined a few rings I liked and Chad had it designed. A few days later he went to my dads work to ask for my hand (something he thought would be cake...HA. My dad took him into the conference room and they talked for over an hour- of course, he gave the OK). That night, he asked me if I wanted to go get a frosty. I obliged, obviously. I could never say no to a frosty. As we were driving, I noticed he wasn't taking me home. I asked him where we were going and he said,

"I want to take you to that lookout real quick. The one we went to on our first date. It was still kind of light out then so you couldn't see the whole city the way I wanted you to".

Umm, okay. This is when it was starting to hit me. Maybe tonight he's going to propose. No, it's only been two days since he brought the ring idea to the jeweler. There's no way it's ready by now.

We hiked the small mountain to the lookout and, once again, it was gorgeous. Who knew Boise was such a beautiful city? As we stood there, holding hands, a carbon copy to the few months back when we had our first date, I started to get excited. I was holding the the hand of the man I was going to be with forever! I looked up at him, looking for a quick kiss and noticed he was nervous. Yep, it was coming.

"Kate, as you probably know, I didn't bring you up here just to eat our frosty's".

"Yeah, I'm getting that", I replied.

The rest is a blur (I was too excited to absorb the words he was saying!), but I know he told me he loved me, wanted to be with me forever, got down on one knee and opened up a box containing the most beautiful ring I'd ever seen.

The next few months were a whirlwind. The combination of stress and my body adjusting to birth control made me a complete lunatic. I'm surprised he still wanted to marry me, seriously. But it all worked out perfectly. I found my dress in about twenty minutes (I only had to try on two before I found the one). My mom's friend (and a good friend of mine as well) helped plan my wedding down to every last detail. She was a lifesaver. I knew I could rely on her and my mom to plan the wedding and not have to worry about anything. My only requests were to have gerbera daisies, our wedding colors, and the design of the invitations. They handled the rest!

August 28, 2008 was hands down the best day of my life. We were married in the Boise, Idaho Temple at 11:00am. I was nervous, but so anxious at the same time. I kept thinking, okay, let's get this show on the road before he changes his mind! The ceremony was beautiful. Every last second of it. Afterwards we took a billion pictures outside the temple (from the lovely Jammie Elkins) and had a luncheon at Carino's (our fav) surrounded by loved ones.

That night was our reception and I still can't believe the amazing turnout we had. I was nervous no one would come because we were married on a Thursday, but we felt so much love and support from so many people (most of which I didn't even know). The weather was perfect- not too hot, not too cold. Everything ran smoothly (from my perspective, at least! I'm sure it was complete chaos in the kitchen), and I couldn't have been happier. I felt so blessed as I stood there in line, aimlessly shaking hands and hugging people I didn't know. I was standing next to my husband. He was mine, forever. How did I get so lucky? How did I trick this handsome man into marrying me? I still don't know.

Three and a half years later, here we are. We've gone through a lot together. We've been to Las Vegas, San Francisco, Disneyland, took a cruise to the Mexican Riviera, taken countless trips to Utah, spent way too much money going out to eat, bought a house, graduated college (Chad), gotten "big people" jobs, watched countless TV series' on Netflix and, most importantly, endured the trial of infertility. We've had a lot of ups and downs, but there's no one I would rather have by my side. Love you, Chad.